Page 131 of My Husband Problem

I don’t ask if she’s okay.

I know that she’s not.

“Should we go downstairs?” she asks.

I am so glad she doesn’t apologize.

I nod. “There are about a million people waiting for us.”

I don’t even know if she tries to smile. If she did, she did a miserable job of it. “Let’s go.”

The only thing that releases some of the tension in my chest is that she holds out her hand to me, and we go down to the arena parking lot with our fingers linked.

CHAPTER 27

ASTRID

“I have tosuckon it?”Maggie Collins, a sports reporter from Portland, asks as Declan and I approach the small group near the food tables in the parking lot outside the arena.

Beckett grins at her and twists the tail off a crawfish, then sucks the meat out. “Yep, you have to suck pretty…” He stops and sighs. “I’ll be honest, Maggie, this would be the perfect place for me to say something flirtatious and slightly inappropriate about sucking heads and getting all the good stuff out, but I find it difficult to flirt with other women lately.”

Maggie's wrinkled nose relaxes, and she gives Beckett an interested look. “The notorious flirt has a crush?”

He nods. “I do.”

“Well, that sounds like a better story than how to eat crawfish.”

Beckett perks up. “You want to write about me today?”

“This hockey league gets a lot of clicks when I do,” she tells him.

I am so relieved that Beckett, Alex, and Nora have clearly been entertaining the reporters while Declan and I were…busy.

I feel my chest start to tighten as I think about what we were doing, and how it didnotgo the way I wanted it to, and howdisappointed and frustrated I am, but I take a deep breath and blow it out.

I can’t let those thoughts intrude right now.

I need to act normal here. Not only are therereportershere to talk to us, but Nora and Alex will definitely notice if I don’t paste on a smile.

It seems that things have been handled down here in our absence, though.

Maggie and Mark, sports reporters whom I expected to see, and Scott Stevens, a reporter withHockey Hunksmagazine whom I didnotknow would be here, have all been following Alex for years. Beckett has never met a reporter—okay, a human—he didn’t want to talk to about just about anything. He once did a spontaneous interview with a lifestyle reporter in a New Orleans coffee shop about the best places to get an oil change in the city. Nora considers herself the hostess for everyone who comes to Rebel for any reason. So the reporters have been in good hands.

If only upstairs had been more fun and…productive.

I push that away again. Itwasfun.

For a while. Until I…

Then I have to pushthatthought away.

I can’t dwell on any of this.

Not only do I have a job to do right now, but it would be horrible if I burst into tears in the middle of the crawfish boil before our game.

Beckett is about to respond to Maggie when Scott notices Declan and me.

“Declan!” Scott greets.